Ponca Tribe
The Ponca (Ponka) are a Dhegihan Siouan-speaking people closely related to the Omaha, Osage, Kaw, and Quapaw nations. Their homeland was located at the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri rivers in present-day northeastern Nebraska. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through Ponca territory in 1804. The Ponca entered into treaties with the United States and were later forcibly removed to Indian Territory in 1877, an event that sparked the landmark Standing Bear v. Crook case (1879), which established that Native Americans are "persons" under the law. Today, the Ponca maintain tribal governments in both Nebraska and Oklahoma.
Portrait: George Catlin, "Shoo-de-gá-cha, The Smoke, Chief of the Tribe," 1832. Smithsonian American Art Museum.
